Art. IX. Report from the Select [C]ommittee on Improvement of the Health of Towns : together with the minutes of evidence, appendix, and index.

Date:
[1843]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Art. IX. Report from the Select [C]ommittee on Improvement of the Health of Towns : together with the minutes of evidence, appendix, and index. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    place where the gas is Hying it will make him ill; and 1 think that people going by at the time when a grave is open must breathe some of the gas, as well as persons working in the grave, for when the gas is out you can smell it quite strong up above. “ How far from the grave will the smell of the gas extend?—It de- pends upon the wind. “ Supposing the wind is blowing towards you, how far will it take it? — If the corpse is about five or six feet below the ground you may smell it six or seven yards from you, but you do not smell it if you are standing by the side and continually in it. “ The vaults in St Clement Danes arc close to the street?—Yes, the gas escapes from the vaults into the church through a grating cullett, and many persons who go to the church on Sunday, when they come home are taken ill and are dead soon afterwards, through the gas in the church ; I do not think the lead is of any use to keep the gas in. “ You would not like to go to a leaden coffin and tap it?—Yes, I should not object to it; if you keep underneath the coffin, you would not have so much of the gas then ; if you keep underneath, the gas flies up ; if you tap it underneath, if there is any dead water, or any ‘ soup,’ as it is called, it runs into a pail, and then it is taken and thrown into some place or ano- ther, perhaps down a gulleyhole. I have been, before now, compelled to put my clothes out of the window, because the stench has been so great that they could not bear the place. “ Has it ever occurred to you to go into a public house, and to find the smell of your clothes offensive to people there?—Yes, many a time; when I have been doing rather dirty work, when 1 have come in, I have noticed the people smell and get away on the other side of the place ; there is sure to be plenty of room when we come in ; they are sure to say, ‘ These chaps have been emptying some cesspool.’ “ Is the smell of these graves more offensive than that of a common cesspool ?—I emptied a cesspool, and the smell of it was rose water com- pared with the smell of these graves. “ Has it ever happened, to your knowledge, that the men have declined digging through the coffins, and (hat they have been induced to do so by the sexton?—Yes ; that is the word: ‘ If you do not like to do it, I will get somebody else.’ “ You, or some of the men, have felt a repugnance to cutting through cof- fins ?—It is not a pleasant thing to chop away when it is not fit to chop away; when the body is decayed it does not matter taking that away. “ And you have found yourself, and other workmen with you, obliged to cut through, whether you liked it or not ?—If you are paid for doing it you must do it, whether you like it or no ; if you do not like it you must go. “Is your father interred there ?—Yes, he is: I did not want him to be buried there. “ Did anything occur to his remains ?—I saw them chopping the head of his coffin away ; I should not have known it if I had not seen the head with the teeth ; I knew him by his teeth; one tooth was knocked out and the other was splintered; I knew it was my father’s head, and I told them to stop, and they laughed; and I would not let them go any further, and they had to cover it over. It is time that something was done to stop it; and there is a slaughter-house close by, in St Clement’s lane, which is enough to breed any fever.” “ Have you ever hesitated, when ordered to dig a grave, in cutting down through coffins ?—Yes ; I have said, ‘ There is not room to put down;’ but it is said, ‘ You must make room :’ but the sexton will not stop over the grave while that is being done ; our sexton I know is fonder of pastry